Real Madrid Stock Watch: Thibaut Courtois leads the way

Falling: Luka Jovic

It is important to be measured when discussing Luka Jovic’s lack of an impact this season, because, really, few expected him to be an immediate success on the stat sheet for Los Blancos when playing behind Karim Benzema.

So the issue here – and thus the reason why Jovic’s stock is under the “falling” column – goes beyond anything under Jovic’s control. Rather, it’s more about the fact that Jovic is on the periphery of the squad, mainly getting cameo appearances that doom him to an ineffective 10 minutes that only further sour him to the demanding Madrid fan base.

Jovic is a classy striker with an eye for goal, great technical ability, and positive link-up play. Rarely have any of those qualities been seen this season, and he had a particularly poor game against Mallorca, cutting an anonymous figure before he was substituted.

Clearly, Jovic and Benzema can’t co-exist as strikers, whereas there was hope that they’d have the skill-sets to be one of the rare pairings that could flourish in a 4-4-2. But that doesn’t work in the modern era of football, unless there is a special striker partnership such as Jovic and Sebastien Haller at Eintracht Frankfurt.

But Benzema and Jovic don’t quite have that connection. Jovic isn’t going to play in many games this season due to Benzema’s status as a workhorse, so it will be tough for Jovic to find any opportunities. He’ll have to seize them, which is honestly going to be a difficult task in 10-minute appearances.